EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1942, Page 3

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

TO JAPANESE ISLAND BASES AMERICAN NAVAL & AIR ATTACK. ADMIRAL NIMITZ’S REPORT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 2. Today the United States Com-mander-in-Chief in the Pacific, Admiral Nimitz, stated in Honolulu that extensive damage had been caused in the big attack on the Marshall and Gilbert islands. He commended the vigorous manner in which the action had been pressed home. The Marshall Islands have been under Japanese mandate since the last war, and this is the first time that the United States Navy has been in action against Japanese territory. The Japanese occupied the Britishmandated Makin Island several weeks ago. SALWEEN LINE JAPANESE TRYING TO BRIDGE RIVER. REASONS FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM MOULMEIN. LONDON, February 2. A Rangoon message says the Japanese are reported to be attemptv ing to bridge the Salween River to the north of Moulmein, with the object of continuing the offensive aimed at Rangoon. It is indicated that the Salween River line will be held with the utmost determination while Burma’s defensive forces are being built up. The plains south and south-east of Moulmein offered the defenders very little assistance against the powerful thrusts in superior numbers, for which reason the withdrawal from Moulmein was necessary.